Leafcutter Ants and their Antibiotics

AntCam

View the live feed of our leafcutter ant colony, looked after by the John Innes Centre insectary. If the screen appears black it is because the lights are turned off at night to simulate the diurnal rhythm of day and night in the South American rainforests.

Ant facts

Leafcutter ant queens can live for ten years and produce 5 million daughters

A fully grown leafcutter colony consumes as much vegetation as a cow.

Leafcutter ants started farming at least 50 million years ago, long before humans evolved.

Leafcutter ants have also been using antibiotics for more than 50 million years, humans have used them for less than 100 years.

Ants can carry 50 times their own bodyweight.

Ants are as old as the dinosaurs.

There are more than 10,000,000,000,000,000 individual ants on Earth and only 7000,000,000 humans.

The combined weight of all the ants on earth is greater than the combined weight of all living humans.